Quick Facts
- NAME: Steve Fossett
- OCCUPATION: Business Leader, Pilot
- BIRTH DATE: April 22, 1944
- DEATH DATE: c. September 03, 2007
- EDUCATION: Washington University, St. Louis, Stanford University
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Jackson, Tennessee
- PLACE OF DEATH: Sierra Nevada Mountains, California
- Full Name: James Stephen Fossett
Best Known For
Steve Fossett was an American businessman and adventurer best known for circumnavigating the globe in a hot air balloon in 2002.
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Play NowSteve Fossett. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 07:28, Jun 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/steve-fossett-9542064.
Steve Fossett. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/steve-fossett-9542064 [Accessed 19 Jun 2013].
"Steve Fossett." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Jun 19 2013, 07:28 http://www.biography.com/people/steve-fossett-9542064.
"Steve Fossett," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/steve-fossett-9542064 [accessed Jun 19, 2013].
"Steve Fossett," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/steve-fossett-9542064 (accessed Jun 19, 2013).
Steve Fossett [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 Jun 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/steve-fossett-9542064.
Steve Fossett, http://www.biography.com/people/steve-fossett-9542064 (last visited Jun 19, 2013).
Steve Fossett. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/steve-fossett-9542064. Accessed Jun 19, 2013.
Disappearance and Death
But in September of 2007, Fossett disappeared during a pleasure flight over the Sierra Nevadas. He did not have a parachute, nor did he take a watch that had a transponder and could have sent out a distress signal. There was a transponder aboard but no signal was received.
Fossett's disappearance prompted a search that ultimately included thousands of volunteers,
Contents
hundreds of officials and dozens of aircraft poring over an area more than twice the size of New Jersey. The search was eventually called off.
On November 26, 2007, Fossett's wife asked a court to declare her husband legally dead. Her lawyer said while the request was painful for Peggy Fossett, it was necessary to begin to resolve her husband's vast estate, which surpasses "eight figures in liquid assets, various entities and real estate." A Chicago probate court judge declared Fossett dead on February 15, 2008.
Searchers found human remains at the crash site of his plane on October 3, 2008. The craft appeared to have hit the mountainside head-on, authorities said. Most of the plane's fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away at an elevation of 9,700 feet. "It was a hard-impact crash," said Jeff Page, emergency management coordinator for Lyon County, Nevada, who assisted the search. "He would've died instantly."
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